Aboriginal Waterways Assessment program

60 Aboriginal Waterways Assessment — Part C Literature review
Two-way learning and doing:
safe engagement
Developing culturally-informed and
safe, effective tools and practices of
Aboriginal water management, in this
historical and policy context, turns the
focus of engagement towards a clear
and mutual understanding of Aboriginal
expertise (Aboriginal science) in water
planning and management that can be
realised by all parties, in practical ways:
‘Effectively identifying and valuing
Indigenous water requirements
is of national significance given
the imperatives established by
current Australian water policy to
improve Indigenous access to water
and protect Indigenous water
cultures and traditions.’
(Bark, et al, 2015, p. 3).
As a comparative study to the
Australian case, a project researching
the inclusion of cultural values in
flow assessments took place in the
upper Ganga River, India (Lokgariwar,
Ravi Chopra, Smakhtin, Bharatic and
O’Keeffe, 2014).
The team found that ecological and
cultural needs are similar wherever a
people is still in direct socio-economic
relationship with their ecosystems. With
regard to two-way learning and doing,
Lokgariwar et al found that integrating
community requirements for rivers
in assessment processes can produce
a common language for government
planners and peoples’ local interests.
Ross and Ward (2009) discuss Use
and Occupancy Mapping, a tool
for identifying both traditional
and contemporary cultural uses of
landscape originating with Canadian
Aboriginal peoples. The authors
promote the need for Aboriginal
participation in assessment strategies.
Consistent with the need for two-way
learning, Aboriginal participation in
assessment promotes cross-cultural
understanding of the meaning of
cultural values in both specific
locations as well as at regional scales.
Tan et al (2012) also promote tools
that provide two-way communication
in the context of deliberation and
to some extent with regard to
Aboriginal and western sciences.
They recommend visits to Country
and holding community workshops
as being the most effective way of
including Aboriginal participation in
decision-making.
Hoverman and Ayre (2012) describe
how Australia’s first formal freshwater
planning allocation in the Tiwi
Islands were acknowledged as
Aboriginal lands by the Australian
Government. The authors note how
the project involved mutual learning
from planners and participants as
‘institutional buy-in for approaches
that are unfamiliar to western
planning has to happen throughout
to avoid hurdles within financial,
corporate or legal sectors (p. 55).’
The project used an internal working
party to enable this institution-level
learning to take place.
Jackson et al (2012) also recommend
Aboriginal engagement throughout a
water assessment strategy. They value
informal conversation as it allows for
‘inclusiveness, scope and ways in which
sensitive information’ can be managed
(p. 60). The Yorta Yorta Aboriginal
Corporation (2010) identifies and
describes critical success factors that
make two-way learning possible in
natural resource management.
Indigenous peoples’
engagement in diagnosing flows
Accepting an understanding that
mainstream approaches to water